American Benefits Council: Our Issues

Dear Employee:

The pension and retirement savings provisions of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA) are scheduled to expire at the end of 2010 or earlier unless Congress acts. This means, among other things, that the maximum amount you can contribute to your employer's retirement plan will decrease and your annual IRA contribution limit will fall from $5,000 to $2,000. If you are concerned about this, we encourage you to use the link below to let your Congressional delegation know that the retirement savings provisions of EGTRRA should be made permanent to strengthen your retirement security.

As you may know, EGTRRA permits workers to save more in employer plans and IRAs, eases portability among various plans (allowing rollovers from government plans to private sector plans and vice versa), and created the Saver's Credit, which benefit savers with income up to $50,000, catch-up contributions that permit workers who are at least age 50 to save more, and Roth 401(k)/403(b) contributions which allow qualified tax-free distributions.

The Pension Protection Act of 2005 (H.R. 2830) and the Pension and Transparency Act of 2005 (S. 1783) are currently being merged by a conference committee. Contained only within H.R. 2830 is a provision that would make the retirement savings provisions of EGTRRA permanent.

Clicking on the link below will take you to a page connected to the American Benefits Council's Capitol Connection Center Web site:

http://snipurl.com/egtrra_perm

The interactive program allows you to input your zip code and pull up the names of your U.S. Representative and Senators. From there you can e-mail a letter to your Senators and Representative that requests their support for this important legislative provision (the letter can also be printed and faxed).